Pride of place

When pioneer brewer Richard Seccombe set up shop by a spring on Auckland's Khyber Pass Road in 1861, he could not have foreseen that nearly 150 years later, not only would the brewery still be there, but that the resulting company would have grown to become one of the leading alcoholic beverage manufacturers in Australasia.

Ironically, it is that very growth that has seen Lion Nathan relocate its operations to a greenfield site in East Tamaki, says Mike Kelly, project director for Beca, the firm responsible for project management of the site.

"To put the project into perspective, the current Newmarket site is approximately 5ha, and the new site is just under 17ha, with the built area running to 60,000m², or around 35% of the total site."

"The old brewery served Lion Nathan for more than a century. With the state-of-the-art plant being provided here, which includes the capacity for further growth, I believe this facility will serve Lion Nathan a further 100-plus years," says Kelly.

The new facility, referred to in-house as The Pride, comprises seven separate buildings including the brew house, brewing process areas, beverage process area, packaging area, warehouse and offices and is one of the largest construction projects in the country.

Innovation is the watchword, and Lion Nathan had high expectations of Beca regarding the delivery of the facility, says Kelly.

"Sustainability, for example, was a key driver of the project and Lion Nathan was determined to integrate not just the standard passive elements into the design, but to create new elements that would be incorporated into the construction."

This included the use of 3.5 tonnes of glass bottles many of which had carried the company's own product collected via kerbside recycling programmes.

Crushed glass aggregate was introduced into the concrete mix used for the floor slabs, foundations, heavy vehicle post-tensioned pavement and under the asphalt in light vehicle areas.

"This is a first for a New Zealand project and is just one example of the ingenuity, collaboration and tenacity that has characterised this entire venture," says Kelly.

Story by: Trendsideas